1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner which is applied to a track system vehicle such as a railway vehicle, allows a height of the vehicle to be kept low, and also allows an interior space of the vehicle to be secured.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is often the case that an air conditioner of a track system vehicle such as a railway vehicle is mounted on a roof of the vehicle as a unit type. Or, a separation type of air conditioner divided into an indoor unit and an outdoor unit is adopted. A unit type of air conditioner is greatly protruded from a roof, or is often embedded on the order of half in a ceiling so as to reduce the protrusion amount from the ceiling.
In the separation type, the indoor unit is able to be made into a small size, so that there are many air conditioners having a structure in which the indoor units are embedded in ceiling portions on both end sides of a vehicle so as to blow cold wind toward the center of the vehicle. Also, the outdoor unit is disposed under a floor of a vehicle body.
Recently, a transport system has come into widespread use which is called a so-called new traffic system which travels in an exclusive track by using rubber tires so as to perform heavy-weight transport. The transport system largely performs unmanned full-automatic operation, and there is also a case where the system has guide wheels which are guided, for example, by a guide track.
Since a vehicle of the new traffic system has a vehicle length of about half of the length of a general railway vehicle and is provided in an urban space or adopted as airport facilities, restrictions are imposed to the height and the vehicle body width.
Therefore, if the unit type air conditioner is mounted on a roof of the vehicle of the new traffic system as it is, the protrusion amount from the roof is large. Also, it is necessary to make a height of the vehicle be high, so that a track occupation cross-section area is increased. Also, since a heavy object is mounted on the roof, stability of the vehicle becomes poor. As a result, there is also a case where falling wind speed resistance is reduced, so that a problem occurs in stability.
If most of the unit type air conditioner is embedded in a ceiling of the vehicle, the protrusion amount from the roof can be suppressed. However, the ceiling height in the interior of the vehicle is lowered, so that there is a strong feeling of oppression and occupant comfort is adversely affected.
In the separation type air conditioner, a vehicle exterior unit is disposed under a floor of the vehicle body. However, in the case of a system which travels as a single vehicle, a space under the floor is occupied by a drive braking device or control device and signal and communication devices, so that it is not possible to secure a space for mounting the outdoor unit of the air conditioner.
Therefore, in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-297964) or Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-120309), there is disclosed an on-roof installation type air conditioner for a railway vehicle, which allows a vehicle height to be reduced by disposing constituent devices in parallel in a transverse direction on the roof.
However, even with the use of such an air conditioner, it is not possible to eliminate the protrusion amount from the roof, or downward protrusion from a ceiling face of the interior of the vehicle, and a problem remains with the above-mentioned vehicle stability or comfort of the interior of the vehicle.
Further, since there are restrictions on the direction of air which is blown from the air conditioner, unevenness occurs in the flow of the blown air in the vehicle, so that there is a problem in that it is not possible to uniformly air-condition the atmosphere in the interior of the vehicle.